Category Archives: Models

This is what we’re all about. We scour the web for the best custom LEGO models to share with you. From castles and spaceships to planes, trains, and automobiles, you’ll find the best LEGO creations from builders all over the world right here on The Brothers Brick.

You’re gun-gonna love this Star Wars vignette

The Star Wars Prequel trilogy is old enough now that the original target audience’s nostalgia has begun a full-scale reevaluation of how those films are perceived in the culture. And Okay Yaramanoglu has taken full advantage of that to give us this microscale rendition of Otoh Gunga, the underwater city that is home to Jar Jar Binks and his fellow Gungans. While my own perception of Episode 1 hasn’t changed much in the last couple of decades, I’m in love with this build in part because it’s a refreshing change of pace for Star Wars builds. Don’t get us wrong, we here at The Brother’s Brick will never tire of Star Wars content. But, that said, sometimes all the shades of gray in the spaceships or the hues of tan in yet another desert landscape can start to feel a little monotonous. Here, Okay has broken that pattern to capture the unique bubble design of the city and even paired it with the departing Bongo sub, taking a couple of Jedi to Theed to see the queen.

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Solve the Blue Mystery of Neptune’s Garden

One thing legendary LEGO builder Bart De Dobbelaer is quite good at is taking us to unique alien worlds. Take Neptune’s Garden, for instance. Whether it be the eerily luminescent jellyfish or the shale-like rocky structures, I can easily get lost in all these amazing details right up until I run out of oxygen, which wouldn’t be very long. Bart tells us that ocean exploration is dangerous (well, duh!) but when Blue Mystery manufactured their OFE (Ocean Floor Exploration) units, a new world opened up. It turns out there’s big money in ocean exploration as Blue Mystery emerged as a Fortune 500 company. But many of their autonomous units were lost to the depths, never to be seen again. The company went under both figuratively and literally. What happened? Did they find something that would best be kept hidden?

Care to plumb the depths?

Everdell Chapel in the brick

Next to LEGO I am a huge board game nerd, and I love it when hobbies collide. Isaac and John Snyder drew inspiration from one of my favourite board games. Everdell is a worker placement game in which you build the homes of the many forest critters that inhabit the forest of Everdell. The artwork was done by Andrew Bosley and Dann May. The playing cards depict forest locations but also its inhabitants. The illustrations on the cards look truly as if they came straight out of a fairy tale. I can surely see why Isaac and John would draw inspiration from it. In this creation we see the Everdell chapel which is built on a rock in a foggy lake. A grey Belville tower roof has been incorporated in the landscaping and to me it is mind boggling that this large piece blends in with the scenery so well.

The resemblance to the source material is really amazing. The Tudor style is done exceptionally well, and including yellowed and damaged white bricks to depict the decay of the building is really clever. On the playing card there are no animals included but it is nice to get some forest critters in there to make the scene appear more alive. They even get cute custom outfits made out of capes and rubber bands. I am curious to see if these two will keep drawing inspiration from this lovely board game. One thing is for sure, I wouldn’t mind!

Death moves on many legs

Of all the ways Death can arrive, and some of them admittedly icky, this version, built by LEGO Bionicle builder Will Hafner, moves on many legs. This…inhuman centipede…is a thing that fuels nightmares. The trans-light blue and gold color scheme is rather neat though. It was created for Bio-Cup which is currently heating up like Georgia asphalt in July. Since it presently is July my hokey colloquialism finally makes sense. Here’s to small miracles! Now if you wish to avoid an icky demise from this creepy crawler I recommend you put an egg in your shoe and beat it.

“Incoming message on the viewscreen, Captain”

Builder Paul Hetherington is totally feeling some classic sci-fi vibes with this bridge scene. Given the four spooky spacemen on the viewscreen, the crew of this intrepid starship must be shaking in their space boots! As is typical with his designs, I’m in love with Paul’s use of repeated patterns throughout the ship’s command center. It’s just trapezoids for days along the walls and in the ceiling! And all of them in pearl metallic gray, contrasting well with the blue, light gray, and yellow throughout the rest of the scene. My mind immediately goes to a mash-up of classic Star Trek and LEGO Classic Space, which I’m sure is the intent. And right in the center is a beautiful LEGO-inspired art piece by Robin Thompson, depicting the long forgotten crew returned for revenge!

From this angle, you can get a better view of all the switches and dials available to the starship’s crew. I particularly enjoy the use this two-wide windscreen, my favorite LEGO part! And the lighting along the floors and pillars fits right in with the sci-fi aesthetic.

In the zone....The AQUAZONE

With the 90 Years Of Play thing going on, LEGO nostalgia has been running high lately. That’s why I was so chuffed to see this great Auquazone tribute by Jason Head (Xccj). Built for this year’s Bio-Cup competition, it features a superbly upgraded monstrous shark getting ready to chow down on mini versions of 1995’s 6195 Neptune Discovery Lab and 6175 Crystal Explorer Sub. Standout features are the textured approach to the sea floor, the integrated transparent blue Bionicle mask serving as the Lab’s front gates, and that cute little mini sub.

If you’re looking for more under the sea goodness, there’s plenty in our archives!

You’ll need some serious firepower to take out this mech

Now that’s one bulky machine! LEGO builder Moko has designed another awesome mech, complete with a detailed interior. The machine comes armed with a tactical rifle, ramming spike, and what appears to be missile pods on the shoulders. There is even the nice inclusion of a winch on the front, providing a way for the pilot to gain access to the cockpit. Shield plates, from the Nexo Knights theme, are placed on the sides of the torso, accentuating the angles at the chest section.

Another interesting feature of the mech is that it has a detailed inner frame which can be seen when the armor segments are removed. Although the frame is not visible all the time, seeing the internal workings of the machine really makes you appreciate the extra effort which Moko has put in to make this a believable robotic model.

Well, that escalated quickly... Wheelie quickly

Escalators, I think we can all agree, normally go up and down in straight lines. Thomas Jenkins clearly prefers his escalator rides with a bit more adrenaline, though – he’s made his go round in a circle! This LEGO build was actually created for an article over at New Elementary celebrating said escalator piece. It’s an older article, but it checks out and is fascinating, so I recommend you give it a read. The seed part is the perfect fit for General Grievous’ wheel bike. You wouldn’t know it was for a moving staircase just by looking at this! The vehicle is almost entirely devoid of studs, which in turn lets its greebly nature shine. All it needs now is a Boga to chase…

A touching tribute to a loyal friend.

After Reddit user jjakk bid farewell to their dog Arden, they decided to commemorate him with a portrait done in LEGO. One part sculpture and one part mosaic, this build is a stunningly beautiful likeness. The variety of color and texture gives the final model a fabulous artistic flair that we’re sure would make Arden proud.

This lightning-themed mech is electrifying

What’s that yellow thing weaving through the tall grass? Well, it’s no Pikachu, that’s for sure. This electric-type LEGO mech by Peter Zieske is from the turn-based combat game Into the Breach. But considering the 8-bit isometric style of the game graphics, this version is a considerably higher definition upgrade. Striding through the grass dual-wielding a pair of whips that could give Iron Man’s nemesis Whiplash a run for his money.

But this mech isn’t just pretty on the outside. The front flips up to reveal a pilot.

This clock goes hoot-hoot instead of cuckoo

LEGO builder Kevin J. Walter has created this cute-looking cuckoo clock. Well, since there’s an owl there, maybe it isn’t technically a cuckoo clock… Do cuckoo clocks specifically need a cuckoo? Perhaps a hooting hourglass… No, it’s not technically an hourglass either. Thankfully Kevin’s creation is much more coherent than my raptor-related ramblings; it makes great use of minifigure legs as detailing. The repetition is great for replicating the intricate wooden carvings one might expect on such a venerable clock. Ditto for the pinecone counterweights at the bottom: the construction is fairly simple – cheese slopes around a studs-not-on-top core – but the effect is terrific, and again mimics skillful woodworking.

The detail I like the most though is the subtle tilt the clock has. Those counterweights and all that extra mechanism makes cuckoo clocks surprisingly heavy, so whenever I’ve seen one hanging on a wall they’ve been noticeably not flush. It’s a small detail, but it makes it feel so authentic.

Oh! I know, a Tytonidae timepiece! (You may need to look that up. I certainly did…)

It’s a colorful world, even when it isn’t.

The world of LEGO mosaics continues to expand, and Dutch artist Ernesto Lemke is helping to lead the way. This LEGO Masters contestant (Dutch-Belgian edition) has developed a style he calls “Brickpainting”. In this recent work of a portrait of painter David Hockney, layers of brick serve as a foundation for more “paint” – various small elements applied at interesting angles to mimic the brush strokes of an oil-based work. I particularly like how he pulled off the rims on the glasses – always a tricky subject to translate into a more pixelized image.

Ernesto has shared a bit about his technique. I had to run this through Google Translate, but I think the gist comes across:

“…I had designed a simple (but not simple) working method for visitors: placing different colors of Lego blocks in order from dark to light. You can check whether it is correct via a black and white photo: if so, you will see an ascending ‘scale’ of different gray values. Each color has its own ‘tone’. The sublime use of ‘tones’ is one of the fascinating aspects of David Hockney’s work. The intensity of color is not only overwhelming but also convincing, even when using colors that seem illogical.”

It’s always cool to learn about new LEGO artists. Who have we missed featuring in our archives? Share your favorites in the comments!